At season's midpoint, losses begin to wear on worn-out Sixers

Head coach Brett Brown shouts instructions to his team during the second half of the Sixers’ loss to the Wizards Monday. Brown said it’s tough for his team to stay united amid all the losses.(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

The 76ers coach maintains that everyone, from his players to outsiders who are hardly keeping up with his team, knows this season’s developmental objective. He says the Sixers are keeping their heads up, despite posting five losing streaks of three or more games through only the season’s first half.

Games like Monday’s reinforce that even the professor requires a reminder of his lesson plan.

“It’s my greatest fear, to be candid,” Brown said. “If we’re a group, we stay as a group, we fight as a group, practice as a group, stay as a group. And that takes hits if you’re losing.”

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The Sixers (13-28) are sticking together, though their recent skid has given them every reason to fray at the seams.

They’re not hitting 3-pointers, shooting 14 percent from beyond the arc in that three-game span. They’re not converting at the free-throw line, only knocking down 63 percent of their foul shots. And the league’s most turnover-prone team is not protecting the ball, committing 17.7 turnovers per game.

Is fatigue catching up to Brown’s well-conditioned players? Are they glancing at the calendar, and pining for the All-Star break? Maybe a little of both, he said.

“This time has always been interesting over my NBA career,” Brown said. “You’re getting ready for spring break. Everybody’s going to Fort Lauderdale, and there’s a time when you can dig in pre-All-Star Break and finish this middle-third of the season with some grunt.

“We want to take our roster, no matter what (players’) resumes say, and fight and compete and play with energy. At times, it’s easy to say we didn’t fight and we were fatigued. But it has to be done in a certain spirit. ... The deflating side of things, at times, creeps in too quickly.”

Halfway through Brown’s first season as a head coach, he’s seen it all. One thing he cannot afford, though, is a dip in the play of Michael Carter-Williams.

The Sixers’ rookie point guard rebounded nicely Monday, in a 107-99 road loss to the Wizards. He shot 13-for-22 and finished with 31 points, after going 6-for-29 for 17 points in his previous two games. But even Carter-Williams showed wear in the latter moments of the Sixers’ loss to Washington. After making 11 of his first 15 attempts, he missed all but two of his last seven shot attempts.

Afterward, Carter-Williams admitted that he’s going through growing pains while playing his first professional season, and that acclimating his body to an 82-game season will take time.

“I think so,” Carter-Williams said. “I’ve never played this long of a season, so I’m learning each and every day. I’m going through it. My body’s tired a little bit. And I have to stay strong. I have to stay with it, do the little things, whether it’s stretching, drinking an extra water or whatever it is.”

Fatigue, said veteran Thaddeus Young, is not the cause of the Sixers’ recent slide.

Young believes the Sixers are settling for contested shots. Poor ball movement and sloppy possessions have led the Sixers to hoist shots just as the shot clock is winding down, Young said.

“If we can find a way to get open looks and easier baskets,” he said, “we’ll be fine.”

Evan Turner seemed to agree with Young. He said it wasn’t physical fatigue that’s caught up the Sixers. He hinted that, mentally, they’re just as tired due to the team’s losing ways.

“If anything wears on you, it’s just tough losses and stuff, as opposed to anything else,” Turner said. “But we have a lot more games and a lot more opportunities before the All-Star break, so we’re going to try to take advantage of that.”